2 seats open for Chester County court

Two seats on the Chester County Court of Common Pleas bench are being sought by three people, all with decades of experience in the county’s legal community and justice system.

Democrat Julia Malloy-Good and Republicans Patrick Carmody and Jeffrey Sommer are vying or the two open positions, individually touting their backgrounds and their temperaments I hopes of convincing voters they would make the best selections for the job of trial court judge.

Malloy-Good cites her long work in Family Court as an attorney and her current position as a special master in the county’s Family Court. Carmody points to his 30 years as a prosecutor in the county District Attorney’s Office, where he has tried more than 100 cases. Sommer refers to his career as a civil trial litigator and municipal solicitor as the backbone of his experience.

Whoever is elected, they will take on the job of hearing legal cases that come to the trial level of courts in the county. With the exception of some small claims cases and minor criminal offenses, all cases are funneled through the Common Pleas Court for initial resolution. In recent interviews, all spoke of their enthusiasm to take on the position of Common Pleas judge.

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Malloy-Good, 61, of West Whiteland, has lived in the county since 1982, having graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. She is married and has two daughters.

“I believe that I have the background and experience necessary to continue to serve the citizens of Chester County as I have, and do, serve them now,” she said recently. “I am ready day one to continue to do the job I am doing.”

She said that in meeting prospective voters on the campaign trial, she found them “happy that there is someone in the race who has the experience in adjudicating cases” although she found herself at times explaining just what it is a Common Pleas Court judge does and does not do.

“I think that when people walk into a courtroom the thing they want is an opportunity to be heard,” she said, looking back on her work as a master handling support cases in family law. “If people feel they were given an opportunity to explain their side, whatever the outcome they can live with it, by and large.”

A knowledge of the law, she said, is no more important than an understanding of how treat litigants. “People being treated with respect is very important,” she said, adding that along with her opponents, “we all come with same body of knowledge” in the law.

“I have loved doing the master’s job, and have found great joy in helping people solve their conflicts,” Malloy-Good said. “I’m ready to use the skill sets I have gained over the years to continue to help people in a real way.”

Carmody, 57, of Westtown, came to the county in 1984, after having grown up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from Penn State University and the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. He and his wife have three children: a daughter and two sons.

Carmody said his reason for seeking a seat on the Common Pleas bench was simple. “To help people,” he told an interviewer “I think being a judge is the ultimate public servant, and I have spent my entire career dedicated to public service.” Carmody joined the DA’s office in 1984 and now serves as chief deputy in charge of trials.

“No one comes into a courtroom happy,” he said. “A judge needs to provide a caring and guiding hand through the process for litigants. My basic judicial philosophy was summed up for me by my late father, who told me ‘Always watch how someone treats a waitress.’ That is, do they treat them with fairness and respect.”

If elected, he would go from prosecuting defendants to hearings both sides of a case, be it criminal or civil in nature. But he said his work as a adjunct professor at West Chester University and teaching students about the rules of evidence had given him an important lesson he would use on the bench – how to listen.

“I think you listen to learn, and you lean to listen,” Carmody said. “You have to be a good listener as well as being on top of the law. A judge is not a legislator. You have to follow the law and make sure that people get a fair shake when they come in front of you.”

Carmody also expressed pride in is work with crime victims, for which he received an award from the Chester County Crime Victims Association in 2003.

Sommer, 55, of Pocopson, grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to the county in 1984. He is a graduate of Lehigh University and received his law degree from Widener School of Law. He and his wife have three sons.

A partner in the West Chester law firm of Buckley, Brion, McGuire, Morris & Sommer, he said his desire to serve on the bench came from an overall assessment of his career in the justice system.

“Over the course of any person’s lifetime they develop certain skill sets,” he said in an interview. “There comes a point when you seek to give back to your community or to the pubic, based on your skill sets. I am a trial lawyer, and my experience is in trying cases,” the basis of the Common Pleas Court system.

Sommer said that in talking with people during his door-to-door campaign, he sometimes equates the work he would do as a judge with that of his experience as a youth soccer referee. Referring a bunch of young players, “is a little like a trial, in that you have people who have their positions and you have to take them into consideration before making a decision and being part of the process.”

In deciding whether knowledge of the law of judicial temperament is more important for a trial judge, Sommer said both were fairly equal. “But frankly, you can learn the law if you don’t know it. The make up of a person is developed over a lifetime of experience, not something you get in six months. That’s an area that you would hope an candidate has before they got to the bench.”

Setting him apart form the others in the race, however, is his work with municipal law cases that come to the court through appeals. “I am the only one with that particular practice of the law,” he noted.

“The practice of law has been very good to me, and I am at the point in my career that it is a perfect opportunity to saw I believe I can serve the public well in this role,” Sommer said.

All three candidates have Internet websites with more information on their background and qualifications. They are www.julia4judge.com, www.carmodyforjudge.com and www.sommerforjudge.com

A fourth candidate, Democrat Anthony Verwey, had been nominated in the primary to run but withdrew from the race over the summer.